


Keystrokes

by w3llthatdidntwork



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Action, Canon Compliant, Comfort/Angst, F/F, Fluff, Mixed AU's, POV Root (Person of Interest), POV Sameen Shaw, Short Stories, flirting/teasing, mixed short stories
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-17
Updated: 2017-12-08
Packaged: 2018-08-15 13:23:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 3,841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8058022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/w3llthatdidntwork/pseuds/w3llthatdidntwork
Summary: A collection of RootxShaw short stories.





	1. Keystrokes

**Author's Note:**

> Story Summary: Root reminisces about her past.

The keystrokes made their familiar tap tap taping sound when Root excerpted pressure on them. She stops, stretches, and yawns as her eyes readjust from staring too long at the bright screen in front of her. As far as she could remember, life had always been like this. She had a plan, an end goal in mind, and without further thought, she’d execute that plan. Root knew that she was extremely lucky that her plans rarely went south. If they did, she was always able to fix them, adapt and move on.

Her mind lost focus, today was the anniversary of Hanna’s disappearance...

This day always weighed heavily on her, she didn’t know why. Throughout the years she’d known many people who died and she’d even been the cause of some of them. Recently, that chapter closed in her life. Hanna’s body was found and the man responsible was dead... the last part was thanks to her, she was happy to report. It was strange that childhood friendships could stick in someone’s memory for so long. What, she’d only been friends with Hanna for two years tops? Looking back on it now, that was merely a feeble three lines of code in her life... if that.

When Hanna first disappeared, Root refused to think that she was dead. That man had just taken her somewhere, right? Somewhere that if Root closed her eyes and concentrated hard enough before sleep, she’d be able to go and guide Hanna back to Bishop. She used to imagine that the first couple of months but the longer it had been, the less hope she had. When she tried to tell the librarian, she was met with backlash. When she tried to tell her mother, she was called a liar. No one believed her, they turned blind eyes to the truth just because it was in their favor.

Everyone was just bad code, herself included.

Growing up wasn’t much better. Her mother was always sick and her father was an alcoholic (which led her to barely touch the stuff) and he had left somewhere along the way. Her home life sucked and other kids thought she was weird. All the other kids except Hanna. Nobody thought it was interesting when she rambled on about code or Organ Trail. She was met with scoffs, eye rolls, or plain out ignored. She was never beat up but it made school particularly uncomfortable. She’d often skip to learn new bits of code on her own anyway. Within a few years she dropped out.

By the time Root could fully call herself a high schooler, she had dropped out of school and started to orchestrate the death of Trent Russell. Six months later she had finished her GED and had already enrolled in some college level programing classes. She did hate school but only in the traditional sense. School was fine as long as she could cut out the whole sitting in a classroom with a bunch of idiots who hated her.

“Root?” A groggy voice called to her. Shaw was at Root’s side and had comfortably cocooned herself in the blankets of their shared bed. Shaw had been attempting to get away from the bright light of Root’s laptop. “Its three thirty in the god damn morning, Root. Can’t you save it? some of us are trying to sleep.”

“Sweetie,” Root said endearingly. Shaw was extra grumpy when woken up. Root couldn’t believe that she was lucky enough to have Shaw with her. She was never able to really connect with anyone beyond Hanna. Sure, she met people along the way but she never really felt a connection, not like this.

Root was amazed that Sameen had even agreed to stay around her beyond sex. Shaw had a personality disorder, she had... something... they both were in a career choice that wasn’t actually conventional, and they should both be technically dead. So, how did Root get this lucky?

“Eeyore, you okay?” Shaw said awkwardly but this time, she sat up beside Root. The hacker knew that emotions were not Shaw’s favorite thing to bring up but she was trying. She also looked adorable squinting against the bright light of the laptop and Root felt the corner of her mouth tug in a small smile.

“Just work, sweetie,” Root said and put in another line of code, but when she went to test it, it failed. She was having difficulty concentrating and it was the reason why it was taking her so long to write this virus.

“Its not just work, is it? Do you want me to make you breakfast or do you want an orgasm?” Shaw said bluntly. Root laughed at that. “What?" Shaw finished rubbing sleep from her eyes. "Orgasms always makes me feel a little better.”

“I’d love to take you up on your offer but I think what I need is sleep.” Root finally put her laptop to the side. She had noticed that she had attracted a gnat to her laptop screen and she really didn’t want to attract anymore bugs to bed.

“Okay, thats good because I’m too tired anyway.” Shaw waited until Root was lying down next to her and then Shaw stretched out on top of her. “No, getting up until I get up. If you reach for that laptop before daybreak I’m chopping off that hand.” Shaw said.

“I think we’ll both regret it if any harm comes to my hand or any of my fingers,” Root replied and received an irritated grunt in response. Root smiled at that and felt Sameen’s breath even out as she promptly fell back asleep. Root closed her eyes and let Shaw’s steady breathing lure her to sleep. Whatever was plaguing her about her past, this was her present now. Root knew that she should enjoy every second of it because life is an extremely fragile thing to hang on to.


	2. Schrödinger’s Pokeball

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A RootxShaw Pokemon Go AU.

 

 

 

Based on [Schrödinger’s Pokeball](http://ishapple.tumblr.com/post/147542527158/schr%C3%B6dingers-pokeball-when-the-app-freezes-in).

* * *

 

The click of the front door was heard by Root in the living room of their shared apartment, a string of swear words followed.

“Fuck, Damn it, you stupid phone! Get in that pokeball!” Sameen was standing in the doorway and glued to her phone, shaking it violently. She had just gotten back from her morning run and had obviously been playing Pokemon Go along the way.

“Whats wrong, Sweetie.” Root walked up to her side.

“Look at this, it’s frozen!” Shaw held up the phone to Root. The screen was stuck at the exact moment a Pokeball had closed on a Pokemon.

“Hey, Shaw, it looks like you got a case of Schrödinger’s Pokeball.” Root tilted her head as a smile reached her lips.

“Root, no.” Shaw rolled her eyes.

“It looks like your Pokemon is both caught and not caught.” A full smile now turned into a full grin.

“Nerd.” Shaw shook her head but despite Shaw’s best efforts a full grin started to tug on her lips as well.

“Shaw, but I’m your nerd.” Root tilted her head to the side and pretended to pout.

“Ugh, don’t say any of that sappy stuff, it kills my mood.” Shaw stormed off and placed her phone on the couch. “I’m going to take a shower now, are you coming or not?”

“Just a minute darling, there is a Arcanine in the kitchen.” Root picked up Shaw’s phone.

“But I already got one.”

“Yes, but this one has a higher CP than yours.”

“Ok, fine.” Shaw took her phone back from her. Root already had her own phone out and was walking towards the kitchen.


	3. A Ballerina Named Root

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ballerina AU.

Shaw was not looking forward to this, not at all. She was going to have to sit through an entire hour of frilly, boring, lame dancing. She would much rather enjoy going undercover at some lame charity, at least they’d have food there. Instead, she was dressed up and in the audience to watch some ballet show or something. She didn’t really care for the details of it, she just cared about finding her target. She was looking for a man in a tux with a cane. He was easily spotted one row ahead of her.

“Hey Sam, did you know that the composition of the music was inspired b-” Cole was chatting in her earwig. He was obviously more excited about it than she was and she cute off the earpiece in irritation. She could only stand one irritating thing at a time.

Five minutes later the lights dimmed and the score started to play. The dancers stepped out one by one in their choreographed patterns. Shaw sighed, the man she had a hit on was sitting completely still and didn’t look to be in any hurry to get up. To bad, it was looking like she’d have to sit through the whole thing.

Shaw had no choice but to focus on the dance. She watched each of the dancers but one caught her eye. She was tall, sure as tall as the others, but her eyes sparkled with something. Something dark, something mysterious and something kinda dangerous. It was almost captivating for Shaw. When the others smiled and went on with the dance, she seemed to be scanning the audience, as if she was looking for someone. The only reason Shaw noticed was because she was trained to.

The dance ended and the house lights came back on. That actually wasn’t as bad as Shaw thought it would be. Sameen's full focus went back on her target and she watched as he got up. Shaw slowly got up after him and kept her distance. She had a handgun and a silencer stashed in her purse and had gotten herself ready to use it as soon as she could get him alone.

The man walked backstage and Shaw followed closely behind. She watched as he made his way to the dressing rooms with a big bouquet of flowers he had picked off from another dancer along the way. As he made his way down the hall, Shaw watched as he looked both ways before entering a dressing room. The man closed the door behind him. He was clearly uninvited and this looked sketchy as hell.

Quickly, Sameen burst through the door with her gun drawn. She had to get in there before that guy tried to off whoever was in that changing room. Instead, Shaw found the ballerina with the dangerous eyes bent over, strangling the man with her pointe ballet shoes. For the first time in a long time Sameen stood frozen. This was the oddest scene Sameen had walked into in her career.

“Hi, gorgeous.” The ballerina said as she looked up at Shaw. The man she was strangling had gone limp, she straightened up and patted down her tutu.

“Ok, who the hell are you?” Sameen pointed her gun at the woman but the ballerina ignored her. The woman emptied out the flowers on the floor and kept the glass vase as if Sameen wasn't standing there ready to shoot.

“You might want to move out of the way.” She tilted her head.

“Or else what?” Shaw didn’t budge.

“Can you tell I’m not afraid of you?” The ballerina just sighed and walked up to Sameen.  A split second later, another man came charging into the room behind Shaw. The abruptness of it threw Shaw off by a split second but the ballerina was on it and smashed the glass vase into his head. He dropped like a stone. Shaw watched the whole scene before her in confused silence, she pointed the gun back at the ballerina when it was over.

“You can tell Control that this is a gift from Root.” the woman’s eyes fixed on Shaw’s. "I hope you enjoyed the show," and just as quickly, the woman broke eye contact and left the dressing room as if nothing happened. Shaw didn't bother to follow, the ballerina wasn't her target. Not only that but she had done Shaw's job for her.

“Ok, that was kinda hot.” Shaw looked around at the wreckage of dressing room and remembered the dangerous eyes of the ballerina who called herself Root. Shaw wondered if she’d run into her again.


	4. Undercover

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sameen goes undercover as a tattoo artist. 
> 
> Warnings: language and mentions of sex.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look at the 2013 movie A Bullet to the Head for Shaw's character look.

“Twelve. O. Clock.” The Machine buzzed in her ear and less than a second later, Sameen came walking through the door. This wasn’t the Sameen that Root was used to. Shaw had her hair down, was covered in tattoos, and she was wearing a white tank top. On top of all that, Shaw wasn’t wearing a bra and her nipples were showing through the thin fabric.

Root’s breath caught and her stomach did a backflip at the exact second Shaw looked up at her. Root felt like she was caught doing something she wasn’t supposed to do. It was shorta the feeling of getting your hand caught in the cookie jar or something like that. Shaw just rolled her eyes and kept the same expression on her face.

“Root.” Shaw said in acknowledgment. Shaw grabbed the corner of Root’s leather jacket to pull her along. “I’m under cover so you better stay away from this place.”

“I can see that, sweetie.” Root said as her brain went back to functioning properly. If Shaw knew the affect that she had on Root, she didn’t show it but then again, Sameen really never did. Root always had to tease it out of Shaw and that was half the fun.

“Your lucky I just closed shop, we are going back to my place tonight.” Shaw finished and motioned for a taxi.

“Oh, do you have something fun in mind?” Root leaned into Shaw’s ear, she was really hoping that Shaw was thinking what she was thinking because damn... this cover identity was really doing something to her.

“Your wearing that stupid look all over your face and I really want to fuck it off of you.” Shaw replied without shame or hesitation. This caused Root’s brain to nearly short circuit and it took a few beats for her to compose herself. This very rarely ever happened to her but it when it did, it seemed like Shaw was the one who caused it. When she came back to her senses, she found Sameen starring at her. She had the same grumpy look that she always had but her eyes were saying something else. They reflected lust.

“Do you see something you like, sweetie?” Root teased, now completely back in control.

“Ugh, don’t do this right now, Root. I can always just leave you here on the street and pick up a steak instead.”

“You know I’m better than a steak, sweetie.”

“A steak doesn’t make me want to punch it in the face.”

“Shaw, a steak doesn’t have a face.” Root finished, but with the look Sameen was now giving her, she knew it was best for her not to continue. Root made a motion with her hand moving it across her lips in a my lips are sealed motion. She then smiled letting Shaw know she wasn’t going to say another word for the rest of the night. Well, at least not another word that wasn’t “Sameen. Fuck. Or harder”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last of some shorter fics I had laying around from the last several months. Most of these aren't as long or thought out as my other stuff but I hope you enjoy anyway.


	5. A Shoot Christmas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A Root and Shaw Christmas short.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This short fic is maybe two weeks too late but enjoy a holiday special in January :)
> 
> Also, long time no see. Here's to another year and more writing!

“Root, what the hell is that?” Sameen Shaw was standing in the main living room of the tiny cabin. She had just woken up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. The reason why Shaw was up at the ass crack of dawn was because Root couldn’t seem to stay quiet in an attempt to burn the place down... in other words “ _cooking_.”

“It’s a Christmas tree, sweetie,” Root replied from the kitchen. Shaw made her way to Root and rolled her eyes at the sight. The kitchen was a mess but at least the pancakes that Root had out on a plate didn’t look damaged. They actually smelled delicious.

“You didn’t go Buddy the Elf on me and chop it down from some park, did you?” Shaw took out a plastic fork from one of the drawers and made her way towards the pancakes.

“Actually...” Root started but didn’t finish the sentence, giving Shaw the impression that that was exactly what Root had done. Shaw wished that she could have seen that. Root was a noodle. A tall, skinny, awkward noodle. Imagining the woman going off into the night with an axe to chop down a tree... well, that would have been one hell of a sight.

The tree itself wasn’t impressively full or heavy looking to begin with. It was maybe a heads length shorter than Shaw in height, if that. The two were in a cabin out in the middle of nowhere so there were really no tree lots to get one. So, it was kinda nice? Shaw hadn’t had a tree since she was a child.

“You managed to do this while I was sleeping?” Shaw asked again. She was ready to take a chunk out of a pancake that was currently cooking on the pan and eat it on the spot.

“Yes, you sleep like a rock,” Root replied and pulled the pan out of reach. Root then took that moment to deposit the pancake on a plate and grabbed a plastic fork of her own. She cut a piece of the pancake and held it up for Shaw to take a bite. Shaw looked up and rolled her eye’s at Root for the second time that morning. Root had a giant smile plastered across her face at the predicament.

“Give me that,” Shaw angrily grabbed the plate and fork from Root’s hands and walked off to find the syrup on the kitchen table.

Root continued, unfazed and grabbed a large plate of stacked pancakes from the cupboard. The Machine probably instructed her to hide them there until Root was completely done. It was probably part of some “you have a .12% chance of getting laid if you make pancakes, hide them, and bring them out in x amount of time,” or something. Shaw was always confused about Root’s strange habits but those habits have been proven time and time again. It was just something that Shaw decided not to question.

“Do you like **_them_** , sweetie?” Root asked clearly about the pancakes but with enough innuendo dripping off the word “them” to double as something else entirely.

“I’ve seen better,” Shaw commented in hope of deflecting another come on. They were in an environment that made Shaw more comfortable when they were alone together. If Root would have done something like this in-front of Harold or John, Shaw would have walked away from the situation all together. Root wasn’t afraid to get under Shaw’s skin publicly and Shaw secretly enjoyed that about Root. Root was a wild card that Shaw couldn’t predict.

“Oh, are you sure you don’t need a reminder?” Root replied without missing a step as she flashed Shaw with a full tooth grin that made Shaw pause mid-bite. Shaw couldn’t help but smirk back and shake her head in disbelief.

“Maybe, after breakfast,” Shaw replied as Root joined her at the table. This actually wasn’t too bad, having someone to wake up to in the morning with her favorite breakfast food. "Oh, and next time I'm going with you to get that tree." Shaw finished, thinking completely out loud and in the moment. Although, she didn't regret what she just said.

"So, there is a next time?" Root's eyebrows shot up.

"Yeah, there is a next time," Shaw said and then took another large bite out of her pancakes. That comment actually shut Root up for the remainder of the meal as Root looked at Shaw with content as she finished her own pancake.


	6. Baby Its Cold Outside

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A fluffy drabble done for the 2017 Shoot Secret Santa event over on tumblr.

“Shit, he’s been watching tv for the past six hours and its freezing in here,” Shaw put down her binoculars. She was sitting in the drivers side of a beat up car to blend in with the area. Root had decided to accompany Shaw on her stakeout tonight. Root was freezing too with the newly formed blanket of snow outside and the number was less than interesting.

“Could be worse, sweetie,” Root leaned back in the car seat, “He could be feeding pigeons in the park for six hours,” Root lifted up the DSL camera and aimed the zoom lens at a brightly lit apartment window, the brackets autofocus targeting a middle aged man through the viewfinder. Root lifted up her finger to take the picture but her hand was clumsy and stiff from the cold. Her long fingers stretched but didn’t connect with the button right away.

“Forgot your gloves again?” Shaw watched as Root fumbled with the device. Root placed the camera on her lap. She stretched her fingers, slowly and carefully. They felt like they were working on a delay from what her brain wanted them to do. It was because of the cold weather. Shaw was right, she should have brought gloves.

“Maybe,” Root rubbed her hands together.

“Turn towards me,” Shaw said and Root turned sideways in the seat, facing Shaw. Sameen reached out and took Root’s hands in her own and rubbed her hands over them, creating friction. “I can’t have you become a Popsicle, your useless if you can’t shoot.”

“Sure, or maybe you need these fingers to do a few more things besides firing a gun,” Root relaxed and enjoyed the closeness of the moment. Shaw rolled her eyes.

“Don’t ruin it or I’ll throw your sorry ass outside and let you walk home,” Shaw said but didn’t stop her task despite her words. Her hands were warm and surprisingly soft over Root’s as she ran her hands in small circles.

“Done,” Shaw let go of Root’s hands, “How do they feel?”

Root wiggled her fingers and they definitely felt less stiff than they did before, “Better,” Root replied as she picked up the camera again. She aimed the lens back at the window and found the number had fallen asleep on the couch with his light on. “It looks like we’re not getting anything useful tonight,” Root sighed and Shaw picked her binoculars up and looked through.

“Damn, guess not,” Shaw put down the binoculars.

“I’m still cold, care to finish warming me up?” Root asked.

“Right here?”

“Right here.” Root was completely serious. The car windows were tinted and there were no street lights in the corner they were parked in. It was exactly the reason why they had chosen this area in the first place.

“Y’know your hopeless, right?” A small smile started to inch to the corners of Shaw’s mouth.

“I know,” Root leaned over and brushed her lips against Shaw’s. Shaw reached for the collar of Root’s jacket to hold her in place, deepening the kiss. She unzipped her jacket slightly, reached for Root’s hands, and placed them on newly exposed skin.

“Keep those warm,” Shaw said momentarily breaking contact until Root kissed her again, running her hands down Shaw’s stomach. Root knew that she wouldn’t be cold again tonight.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want to check out more Shoot stuff done by others check out: https://shootsecretsanta.tumblr.com/
> 
> Lol, also my writing has changed so much since I started this but I didn't want to create a whole new story for just 500 words. 
> 
> Edit: I actually went back and edited a few things on previous chapters and now I don't feel so bad about them.

**Author's Note:**

> I know my multi chap fic is getting neglected but I did a thing?
> 
> Trying to get better at writing as Root… so I wrote something short.


End file.
